What is grace?
You hear a lot about grace
in the Church,
from the Gospels,
in the sacraments
and from the pulpit.
Have you ever stopped
to think about what
grace actually is?
[PAUSE]
Tuesday's child is allegedly full of grace.
A good ballerina is graceful.
What does that mean?
Is it because she has
complete control over her limbs?
Is it because she can
display the music in her body?
Or is it because we find
her movements beautiful?
[PAUSE]
The Greek word
we translate as grace
can also mean favour.
If something is graceful
then it is favourable, pleasing, fitting.
Grace is not something
the ballerina possesses.
It's something we see in her,
something good.
[PAUSE]
The Angel tells Mary that
she is full of grace.
Actually, he says something stronger
In a single Greek word,
Gabriel says
not only that she is full of grace,
but that the act of filling her with grace
is complete, finished, done.
She is perfected in grace.
She has God's complete favour.
She is completely good!
This sounds very alien
to ears two thousand years distant
and two thousand years sinful.
How is Mary good?
Only God is truly good.
So where good is, God must be.
"Hail Mary, full of grace,
the Lord is with thee!"
[PAUSE]
If God finds favour
in something He has created
then He is present with it.
We now know that grace is
nothing less than
the active presence of God.
Grace is a good gift,
and a perfect gift
that comes down to us
from the Father of Lights.
It is something He wants us to have.
Mary has it
because she chooses to receive it.
And we need to receive the gift, too.
Every sacrament the Church possesses
is a means of grace,
and gives the active presence of God
to all who receive it.
[PAUSE]
Our Lord enters the waters of the Jordan
to be baptized by St John.
His active presence in the water
means that the water in the font
is transformed into the same water
in which He bathes
and washes away our sin,
and draws us into his family.
Our Lord breaks bread and says,
"This is My body".
This means that the bread is transformed
into His body, and the wine, His blood.
And we are given His active presence
to nourish us
and prepare us for life's journey.
Our Lord blesses a marriage
with His presence
and so sanctifies every marriage.
He is handled by His apostles,
and so gives them the power
to bestow the Holy Ghost
for confirmation and ordination.
He is anointed with oil for His burial.
He forgives sins and tells His disciples to.
It is the active presence of Christ
in each of these actions
that make the sacraments
not empty symbols,
but real displays of God's favour
and desire to be with us,
live with us,
love us,
forgive us,
heal us
and perfect us.
[PAUSE]
St James says:
"Every good gift
and every perfect gift
is from above,
and cometh down
from the Father of lights,
with whom is no variableness,
neither shadow of turning.
Of his own will begat he us
with the word of truth,
that we should be
a kind of firstfruits of his creatures."
God does not change and so
God's grace does not change.
The sacraments that we receive
are the same sacraments
that are received by
St James,
St Paul
and anyone they give them to,
provided that
we do not change how
these sacraments operate.
God's grace begets us
with His Word of Truth
because
Christ is the Word of Truth.
To be favoured by God
is to have Him with us
as we live our lives.
The Church is the means
by which every human being
may receive God's grace.
That is her purpose.
While we are with her,
we do receive God's grace
- grace which we can give
to those others
who dearly need to know
not only that they are lovable
not only that they are lovely
but they are also truly
and completely
loved.
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